


Safe;Alive

by B3_B0



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Angst, Boyfriends, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ezra Bridger Gets a Hug, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Season/Series 04, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25881838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B3_B0/pseuds/B3_B0
Summary: Ezra woke to the feeling of Luke nuzzling his face into Ezra’s neck. What he did not expect to find when he opened his eyes was Luke's skeleton staring back at him.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 11
Kudos: 56





	Safe;Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a prompt I read on Instagram.

Ezra woke to the feeling of Luke nuzzling his face into Ezra’s neck. Eyes still closed; he couldn’t help but smile at the small bit of contact. Slowly, he opened his eyes only to be greeted with horror. The face that met his was nothing but a skull. A hand of bone was draped over his stomach. Ezra shot out of bed, making the bony hand dissolve into dust.

“Luke?” Ezra called. “Luke!” but the skeleton did not answer. Ezra tried to get his bearings. He looked back at the corpse, _Luke’s Corpse_ , his brain unhelpfully filled in, and realized with dread it was wearing Luke’s clothes. The empty eye sockets seemed to stare at him in contempt and judgement.

_You did this,_ a voice said. _This is your fault_.

Breathing heavily, Ezra bolted from the room, looking for something, _anything_ , that made sense. His frenzied run led him to the common room. From the corner of the dimly lit room, he thought he saw an outline of a slender figure sitting down, back towards him.

“Sabine?” Ezra asked. He was dimly aware of himself shaking.

The figure, Sabine, straightened. “You did this,” she said.

“Huh?” Ezra asked dumbly.

“You let me down, Ezra.” She turned to him, eyes glowing a sickly green. “You let us all down.” With great speed, she ignited the dark saber and charged at him. Ezra raised his own weapon ( _when had he grabbed that?)_ to block her blow.

“Sabine,” he struggled, using all his might to keep her attacks at bay, “this isn’t you! Snap out of it!”

He dodged another blow aimed for his neck.

“You made me into this!” She shouted, slashing downward. “You couldn’t save Luke, and you have doomed me!”

“No!” Ezra yelled, using the force to push her away. She recovered fast, running and kicking him into the wall with much more force than normal. Before he knew it, Sabine had pinned him to the door, the dark saber at his throat. Ezra fumbled blindly with his hand, looking for the pad to open the door.

“I told you once before,” Sabine -no, not Sabine- _the voice,_ said, “You will never save your friends.”

Ezra stared defiantly into the sickly green eyes before the door behind them suddenly opened and Ezra was forced back into the other room. He fell hard on his back and when he looked back up, the door was already closing. Ezra stood, shaking himself off and looking around to find that he was in a hallway. But not a hallway in his house.

_I’m on the Ghost? How?_

He didn’t know how or why he was here, but he knew these walls intimately. Regardless of how he ended up here, he needed to find something, _someone_ , to help make sense of this. Ezra slowly crept through the dark hallway, listening and reaching out with his senses. Without warning, a door, _Kanan’s door_ , opened. Ezra tried to peek inside the room from his spot across the hallway, but couldn’t see inside at all. It was as if Kanan’s room had been swallowed by an endless void.

_I have a bad feeling about this,_ he thought.

Taking a breath in, he walked toward the room and entered. As soon as he entered, the door closed behind him. Ezra tried not to take that as a bad sign. The inside looked just like Kanan’s room before everything went wrong, which wasn’t saying much as Kanan preferred to keep everything minimalistic. The real draw of the room, though, was the man sitting in the middle.

“Kanan?” Ezra asked incredulously. Kanan sat facing away from Ezra in a meditative stance. Though Ezra could not see his face, he could _tell_ it was him.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Kanan said lowly.

“Kanan, what’s going on? How are you here?” Ezra asked. “Are you here?”

“You need to leave,” Kanan said, a little bite in his voice.

“But I don’t even know how I got here, or what’s going on!” Ezra nearly yelled. “I need help,” he said softer.

“ _Help?_ ” Kanan bit, still not turning to face him. “How could I ever help you when you couldn’t even save me?”

Dread creeped across Ezra’s spine at his master’s chilling tone. “Kanan, please,” Ezra pleaded. “I don’t know what to do.”

Kanan stood up. “I think you’ve done enough,” he said, turning around.

Ezra gasped, staring in horror at his former Master. Half of his face was charred, the other half was a sickly, blistering red. His pale eyes seemed to bore into Ezra’s soul. His whole body was blistered, red, and charred. He looked as if he had walked straight out of the burning fuel depot.

“ _You_ ,” Kanan spat, “you did this to me!”

“No! I- I tried to save you!” Ezra backed up.

“Save me?” Kanan laughed, a cold, chilling laugh that wasn’t befitting of the kind man he knew. “You doomed me!”

“Kanan, I’m sorry I-”

“I should have left you on the streets to rot,” Kanan snarled. “Now, my blood is on your hands.”

“No!” Ezra cried.

Kanan stalked closer. “You’ve doomed everyone. You can’t save anyone.”

Ezra felt hot tears pooling from his eyes. His heart was leaping out of his chest as he backed up all the way to the wall, unable to escape the terror in front of him.

The room began to dim. The Ghost’s walls faded from view.

From the shadows, Luke’s Skeleton crawled up, its decayed form coming closer at an alarming speed.

Flanking Kanan’s right was Sabine, still possessed by the Nightsister’s magik.

Ezra’s wall that he had been leaning on, disappeared. He fell on his back with a grunt all the while, the trio advanced on him. With no barrier, Ezra ran. He didn’t know where he was going, he didn’t even know if there was ground below him, but he didn’t stop. He could still feel them behind him but he didn’t look back. Running didn’t stop more images from taunting him. He saw Hera stuck in the cockpit of an A-wing; her prone body was pale and scarred. He saw Zeb pinned to the ground by a bow rifle. He could smell smoke and fire. His people were screaming. Maybe he was screaming. He saw his parents with holes in their chests. He ran. The figures followed.

Ezra was forced to stop when he barreled into a tall figure. Shaking his head, he looked up to find a Loth Wolf staring back, baring his teeth.

“Dume?” Ezra asked.

The wolf looked down on him coldly. “ ** _You ran_**.”

Ezra groaned in frustration. “Well what was I supposed to do when I’m being chased by _them_?!” Ezra gestured.

Dume growled. “ ** _Coward_**.”

“No,” Ezra cried, scooting away. He didn’t get far, though. The corpses had caught up to them, boxing him in.

“Please,” he cried, still on his knees, “help me.”

From the crowd surrounding him, a lone figure appeared.

“Maul?” Ezra asked.

Maul walked slowly toward him. “This is all your doing, Ezra,” Maul gestured around them. “If you had just come with me and taken my knowledge, your world would not have to burn.”

“That’s not true,” Ezra yelled. “You’re wrong!”

Maul just stared back. “Their deaths are on your hands because you were too _cowardly_ to do what needs to be done.”

“No!” Ezra cried.

Maul ignited his saber, coming directly towards him.

“I am truly sorry it had to come to this,” he said.

Ezra watched in horror as he brought the saber back and then struck.

* * *

Ezra woke with a start, hand instinctively coming to his mouth to stifle the scream. He breathed heavily and frantically, looking around the dark room to get his bearings. He was laying down on his and Luke’s bed in their house.

_Luke_.

Slowly, he turned, fearing he might see Luke’s skeleton again. Luke was on his side, his face turned away from Ezra. He could see the slow rise and fall of his chest. He was alive.

A tight knot released in Ezra’s chest and he took in a deep breath. He noticed absentmindedly that he was shaking. The lingering panic left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. He laid on his back staring at the ceiling and tried to forget the bad dream, but the images seemed to play on repeat, spinning around in his head. He looked at the chrono, noting how early it was. It was too early to get up, but Ezra knew he couldn’t go back to sleep and didn’t particularly want to after the nightmare. He felt tears well up in his eyes and fought them back, not wanting to get even more emotional. He was just about to get out of bed, knowing he couldn’t sleep before-

“Ezra?” a sleepy voice called.

Ezra turned away from the ceiling and his musings to where Luke was laying. Luke had turned toward him, eyes looking blearily up at him.

“Hey,” Ezra whispered, reaching out a hand to brush some strands of hair from Luke’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Mmm,” Luke replied, eyes closing at Ezra’s touch. “Nightmare?”

Ezra shrugged, “I’m alright,” he lied.

“Mmm” was Luke’s only reply.

Without prompting, Luke scooted closer, resting his head against Ezra’s chest and draping his arm over his abdomen. Instinctively, Ezra wrapped his arm around him, pulling him closer. Luke’s gentle presence seemed to unfurl another tight knot in his chest, allowing him to breathe easier.

“Wanna talk about it?” Luke asked.

Ezra’s heart spiked at the question. “Not really,” he said. “Later,” he clarified.

“Okay,” Luke accepted. Luke began drawing lazy circles across Ezra’s abdomen as well as sending a gentle force nudge of _safelovecomfort_ through their bond. Ezra eagerly basked in Luke’s bright presence and mirrored Luke’s lazy patterns on his back. They stayed that way for a long time; Ezra slowly relaxing as Luke sent him comforting messages through their bond and through his gentle touch.

Some indeterminate time later, Luke tilted his head up and lazily kissed Ezra’s jaw, long and slow.

“Rest,” Luke murmured. “You’re safe. I’m safe. And we’re all alive.” 

Luke nuzzled his face into Ezra’s neck, but unlike in his nightmare, Luke was safe and very much alive. His presence in the force was a beacon that guided Ezra away from the nightmare and towards a comforting drowsiness. Ezra let himself fall asleep with Luke safely tucked away in his arms, his force presence wrapping around them both.

Ezra did not dream for the rest of the night. The one time he did wake up, he was only aware of a warm presence beside him sending gentle reassurances of _SafeLoveAlive_ as he drifted back off.

**Author's Note:**

> This work is purely self-indulgent and serves as more of a writing exercise than a story in its own right. I just wanted more SkyBridger content, really. Thanks for reading my first work on this site! Let me know what you thought!


End file.
